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Cambridge creates an app for the Alps

Cambridge technology is at the heart of new app for outdoor adventurers in France.

ViewRanger, the UK based online trail guide and GPS app, has partnered with outdoors retailer Lafuma – which specialises in trail running, trekking and hiking equipment, to provide a co-branded app for the French market.

It has already been deployed by the Groupe de secours en Montagne des Sapeurs-Pompiers de la Haute Savoie search and rescue team in France and the app is currently being tested by other French SAR organisations.

The ViewRanger app has had over three million downloads to date and has established itself as the outdoors navigation app of choice for consumers across Europe and increasingly the US. The companies are identifying and working with key publishing partners such as Département de la Drôme to add further trail guides into the app, as well as collaborating on a range of marketing and promotional activities.

The app helps active consumers to plan, navigate, record, and share their outdoor adventures on smartphones, on tablets, and online. It is available to download, for free, on Apple, Android and Amazon app stores and comes with access to free global mapping and a range of free trail guides.

A low-cost subscription to IGN Geoportail topographic maps, along with detailed topographic maps for more than 20 other countries, is available to purchase in-app.

The app is also used and trusted by search & rescue professionals, including almost all mountain rescue teams and lowland search teams across the UK and Ireland and a growing number of teams in the US, Canada and Germany.

The ViewRanger technology recently won an ISPO 2014 award from the international outdoors industry, was named as one of the Best Apps of 2013 by Google, and is regularly selected as best GPS in outdoors GPS gear tests within outdoor magazine publications. The app has been used to help explore every continent on the planet – including Antarctica.

Craig Wareham, co-founder and CEO of ViewRanger, said “Both Lafuma and ViewRanger are recognised innovators within the outdoor sports market and it is very exciting to be working together to help active consumers in France get more from their outdoor recreational activities.

“Lafuma know and understand the outdoor market in France exceptionally well and we know and understand smartphone app technology. Together, and along with leading guide publishers, we are delivering a unique tool to help active consumers plan, do, and share their outdoor adventures whether on foot, by bike, or on water.”

• PHOTOGRAPH: A route just outside St-Jean-de-Sixt and an easy circular walk through an alpine forest up to open pastures with views over the surrounding mountains and hillsides.